This invention relates to apparatus for containing infants, and more particularly, to an infant incubator or infant warmer having a means of achieving considerable access to the infant contained within the apparatus.
Infant incubators are basically controlled environments within which the infant is contained and wherein the temperature and humidity are controlled to provide that environment to the infant. As such, therefore, there is an infant compartment that contains the infant and where the environment is controlled to provide the correct conditions for that infant.
Infant warmers, on the other hand, are used to provide heat to the infant but the infant is not generally within a protective, enclosed environment but may be exposed to the surrounding ambient atmosphere. The infant warmer is used where the personnel need considerable access to carry out some procedure on the infant.
With the use of either infant care apparatus, however, there obviously are times that the environment of an incubator must be invaded for the attending personnel to provide some function to the infant, be it changing the infant or providing other therapy or aid the infant. At such times, the personnel must have good access to the infant and preferably be able to position the infant in a variety of positions so that the needed procedures can be carried out in an expeditious manner and the infant returned to the controlled environment. Alternatively, the infant may be fully removed from the incubator and the certain procedure carried out on a table nearby, however, that is inconvenient and it is preferable to be able to act on the infant without moving it away to a separate location. In addition, there is not only the inconvenience of moving the infant to another location but any movement of an infant that is in need of an incubator or warmer is potentially very disruptive to the infant and it is advantageous to move or disrupt the infant and the surrounding therapy device connections as little as possible.
Accordingly, there are infant incubators where the infant may be partially withdrawn from the incubator by some mechanism associated with the incubator, such as a sliding infant support that allows the infant to be moved laterally out of the incubator for the procedure, however, such systems do not allow personnel the ability to move the infant to various positions to gain access to the particular portion of the infant that requires attention. Another means of gaining access to an infant is shown and described in German DE1,239,060 where a mattress is pivoted about a point near one end of the mattress so that the infant can be swung out of the infant care apparatus for accessibility. In addition, an open care system is known of Phoenix Medical Systems Ltd. In Madras, India that has a limited rotating function to a circular bed.
It would therefore be advantageous to have an infant incubator that includes an infant support that can be moved to a large number of angular and lateral positions so that the attending personnel can have the maximum amount of access to the infant easily and reliably.
It would also be an advantage to have an infant warmer with a mattress that can be fully rotated 360 degrees about a central pivot so that the attending personnel can have maximum access with minimal disruption of the surrounding therapy device connections. It would be further advantageous for a combination of incubator and infant warmer to provide the access to the infant that a rotating and translating mattress would afford.
The present invention provides an incubator or infant warmer having a mattress upon which the infant is positioned and which can be rotated to gain almost complete access to the infant to carry out the necessary procedures upon the infant. In one embodiment of the present invention, the mechanism includes a translation platform that is positioned within the infant compartment during the normal operation of the incubator and which may be moved to a partially external position where the infant is moved laterally towards the outside the infant incubator and which is still supported by the incubator apparatus itself.
When the translation platform has thus been moved to its outer position, the infant may be rotated about a central pivot point such that the attending personnel can fully rotate the infant 360 degrees to whatever position is desired to gain access to the part of the infant where the procedure is needed.
By means of the present invention, therefore, the infant can be moved laterally to a position partially external of he incubator compartment, rotated easily, and, when the particular procedure has been completed, the infant may be readily moved back to within the controlled, protective environment of the incubator.
In an alternate embodiment, the rotating infant mattress is used in an infant warmer and the mattress rotatable 360 degrees about a central pivot point of the mattress so that complete access is afforded to perform procedures on the infant. That alternate embodiment can, of course, also provide the translation movement along a linear path and then be rotatable when the infant has been moved away from the central focus of the heater used in the infant warmer.
Other features of the rotating infant mattress will be come apparent in light of the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.